6
UK
Asian Voice - Saturday 1st December 2012
Brands will soon be reading our minds By Spriha Srivastava
A gala curry night The British curry awards took place on Monday night in a n extremely grand fashion. The event was co-hosted by BBC presenter Jenny Bond and celebrity impersonator Rory Bremner. Judging Criteria was based on menu choice, wine list, exterior and interior decor and plate presentation. In total there were over 270,000 public nominations from diners across the UK. The list of winners include Best Delivery Restaurant/Take-away by Justeat.com – MUSHTAQS (Hamilton, Lanarkshire); Best Restaurant Scotland - TAJ INDIAN (Prestwick); Best Restaurant North East - AAGRAH (Leeds); Best Spice Restaurant North West - INDIAN OCEAN (Ashton-uLyne); Best Spice Restaurant Midlands – ITIHAAS (Birmingham); Best Newcomer Restaurant Midlands - FIVE RIVERS A LA CARTE (Walsall); Best Restaurant Wales - RASOI INDIAN KITCHEN (Swansea); Best Restaurant South East - HAWELI INDIAN RESTAURANT (Twyford, Berkshire); Best Newcomer Restaurant South East - SHAMPAN 4 - THE SPINNING WHEEL (Westerham, Kent); Best Restaurant South West - SPICE LODGE (Cheltenham); Best Restaurant South West - THE MINT ROOM (Yeovil, Somerset; Best Restaurant Central London & City BOMBAY PALACE (Paddington); Best Newcomer Restaurant Central London & City – CHAKRA (Notting Hill); Best Restaurant London Suburbs - CHAK 89 (Surrey); Best in Casual Dining THE CHILLI PICKLE (Brighton, East Sussex); Special Inspiration Award Dipna Anand of Brilliant Restaurant Female Chef.
Evolution saw a plethora of high-profile guests in attendance, and included celebrities, dignitaries, politicians, business leaders, and of course, top names from the culinary industry in the UK. The gala dinner also featured quality entertainment amidst a gourmet banMo Luthra Branding Consultant www.moluthra.com
Sabir Karim, chef patron of Namaaste Kitchen won the category for ‘Best Chef’ at the British Curry Awards and FOBC Asian Curry Awards
quet. This year’s event also celebrated a Best of British theme as it reflects on the UK’s remarkable achievements during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The nomination process for the awards encourages people to put forward their favourite Indian eatery for a well-deserved accolade and the awards are estimated to draw a record number of nominations. It is stated that an Indian meal is now the preferred choice of take-away amongst the British population, and has overtaken previous favourites such as Chinese and Italian take-away food. To reflect this, a new award category of ‘Best Delivery Restaurant / Takeaway” has been added this year, in association with Just Eat, the online takeaway ordering service. This was open to restaurants that are takeaways, as well as restaurants that offer a home delivery service, and was judged on a nation-wide basis. The British Curry Awards was established by British entrepreneur Enam Ali MBE who the founded the event in 2005. He has been Jenny Bond, Dipna Anand, Enam Ali, Francis Maude tirelessly promoting the at the awards British curry industry globally With the UK curry industry boastfor the past 30 years. In speaking about ing 10,000 restaurants and 80,000 the event, he says: “The British Curry employees, the awards have become a Awards recognise and honour the intehighlight on the UK social calendar, gral contribution made by the UK’s and each year showcases the vast allure Asian restaurants and take-away outof the £3.6bn a year curry industry. The lets to the social and cultural fabric of the United Kingdom. curry industry is not only a lucrative Curry may be born in India, but mainstay of the economy but also an British Bangladeshis globalised it. The integral part of the nation’s social and humble curry has come a very long way culinary fabric. since it first came to these shores. A pioneer in the UK catering and Indian cuisine has now become the hospitality sector, the British Curry Awards has been lauded as a pivotal favourite food of the nation, and is UK institution, with Prime Minister enjoyed by millions of people across the David Cameron calling the awards ‘the UK, from students to professionals and curry Oscars’. He went on to say, "Its pensioners. Most people will have a often said that curry is Britain's nationfavourite curry that they will order when they go to a restaurant, meaning al dish and it's easy to see why. It's not that Asian cuisine is deeply embedded just the flavour served up in the thouin the psyche of the British people” sands of the curry restaurants across Talking about the event, Chris the country, it is the welcome too. Grayling, MP said, “This ceremony Those who work in the curry industry goes from strength to strength each enliven Britain's high streets, boost local economies and contribute to local year. It is a fantastic occasion to celecommunities." brate new restaurants and rising stars This year’s event at the Battersea of the future".
Let us know what you think. Email Spriha at aveditorial@abplgroup.com
Do you remember the movie The Minority Report (2002), directed by Steven Spielberg? In making this film he brought together fifteen prominent experts in their respective fields to shape an idea of what the world would look like in 2054. Out of all the iconic imagery that came out in that film, the one that really grabbed my attention was of the interactive billboards. These billboards would recognise an individual and recommend to them products or services which they might need or desire. A marketing man’s dream.
Not that we are there yet, but with the advancement of online technologies and social media, coupled with the amount of data that is floating around; it has led some of us to think it might not take till 2054 for interactive billboards to actually happen. The reason why is if you look hard enough now, our desires and aspirations are already being plastered in some little corner of the internet. Things are already happening. KLM has introduced a service where you can choose who you want to sit next to on your flight based on Linkedin and Facebook profiles. Nike has dropped its TV and print advertising by 40% and is instead spending the money online, to push its new concept, Digital Sports. On top of all this is the smartphone trend. Now we can do almost anything on these tiny handsets with these magic apps. One would imagine we would be given a mobile phone at birth, as they are so
essential in our daily lives. To highlight how connected we really are, a report out recently in America stated that 36 million Americans have bought something on their smartphones while sitting on the toilet. More than 4 million have shopped while driving a car, and 9 million have secretly bought something on their mobile device during a business meeting. Brands are already fighting tooth and nail to make their web platforms work harder and drive purchase from a mobile device. It soon won’t be in the realms of science fiction that our mobile device will alert us when we have walked into a store that sells our favourite perfume brand, or has the latest football shirt that we have been tweeting about. If we are expressing in some shape or form our likes and wants on the internet, it‘s really only a short matter of time before that is captured and presented to us in our real worlds.
Indeed the ‘sugar in milk’ Indrani Thakurata “Zoroastrians are privileged to have the first and the oldest living prophetic religion in the world,” says Professor Almut Hintze during the opening of ‘Like Sugar in Milk exhibition’ held in University college of London. ‘Like Sugar in Milk’ is a heritage lottery funded, oral history and photographic exhibition focusing on the migration stories of Zoroastrian and Parsee elders now residing in the South East of England. Originally from India, Iran, Pakistan and East Africa, the narratives presented in this exhibition describe the lives of those who migrated between 1950 and 1980. “The story of ‘Sugar in Milk’ implies that the Zoroastrians mingled with the natives of the land and sweeten their lives and country without disturbing the fabric of the community. And every immigrant community has done well for themselves as well as for the community that they have been living in, because of the loving support of the country, be it
India or Britain,” says Jehangir Sarosh interfaith moderator. The exhibition has
highlight the captivating and poignant stories of survivors of this diversely rich community. “I have had the joy of living in this country for over 60 years. Each time immigrants arrived, they were given the freedom to practice their custom, culture and religion as long as it was within the law. Many of the immigrants have been awarded by our highness for their contribution to the society. Today’s event is an example of how the host community is interested in learning about our community, whereby offering greater opportunities of integration. Through this exhibition real people talk about the difficulties of migrating to a new Amy Daboo's story showcased. country and how A glimpse of the exhibition they beautifully integrated into the system but been created and develquite naturally not assimioped by Bandbazi a multicultural arts company. lated. Summing up, I The exhibition showcases believe, we have tried to transcripts from interbe the sugar in milk, ” views with 10 Zoroastrian elaborates Jehangir, who is interviewees, a present one of the interviewee. day and archive photoAdding to the same line of graph for each interviewee thought, Lord Bilimoria concludes, “I live by an and historical information advice given by my father, on the religion and culture to integrate but to never of Zoroastrianism. forget one’s roots.” The exhibition aims to